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Ending discrimination in hospital
visitations & health-care decisions

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On 2010-APR-15, President Obama signed an executive order that instructs almost all hospitals in the U.S. to:

• Accept the patient's choices of visitors rather than -- as some do -- continue with their policies of restricting visitors to close relatives and spouses.
  
  
• Act according to patients' written directives in the event that the patient is unable to make medical decisions for themselves, even if those directives give decision making power to a person who is neither a married spouse nor a relative of the patient. 
  
  
• Stop discrimination, if any exists, against persons on the basis of their race, color, nationality, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Much of the secular media, conservative religious groups, and gay support groups interpreted the executive order as mainly benefiting same-sex couples. They largely ignored the other seven grounds on which the executive order will protect Americans from discrimination by hospitals (i.e. race, color, religion, gender, gender identity and disability).

It seems that whenever a regulation or law protects heterosexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals, many people regarded it as a specifically pro-gay measure, even if the vast majority of people who benefit are non-gay.

Objectivity and a grasp on reality seem to be rare commodities these days.

Topics covered in this section:

• Background. The nature of the problem
  
  
• President Obama signs the executive order. Positive reactions
  
  
• Executive order's negative reactions. Media coverage. Personal comments

Copyright © 2010 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2010-APR-20
Latest update: 2010-APR-20
Author: B.A. Robinson

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